High Risk Offender Notification

In accordance with the Nova Scotia Release of High Risk Offender Information Protocol, Halifax Regional Police is advising all citizens, particularly those in the Halifax Regional Municipality, that a high risk offender is residing in our community.

Melissa Ann Shephard, 80, was released from the Nova Institution for Woman today, after completing a sentence for serious assaults against her intimate partners, including administering noxious things and not providing the necessities of life for which she was sentenced in June 2013. Shephard has a history of violent criminal convictions dating back to 1992 that includes a conviction for manslaughter. Shephard has been assessed as being a high risk to re-offend. Her victims have included her intimate partners consisting of elderly men.

Shephard will be on a recognizance and will be required to follow a multitude of strict conditions, some of which include:

should she alter her appearance, she shall upon a demand by a police/peace officer, submit to having her current photograph taken

she shall not access the internet or be in the possession of, any device that is capable of accessing the internet

she shall make no attempt to communicate, directly or indirectly with any of her past victims or family members of the victims in the case in which she was convicted

she is not to enter into any romantic relationship, cohabitation, common-law relationship, or marriage until that person has been identified by a member of the police agency where she resides and there has been a reasonable opportunity provided to the said police agency to inform them of her history in these and other legal proceedings.